Two cases of the Omicron COVID variant has been confirmed in Nigeria by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), today 1st of December 2021.
The new variant has prompted a fresh round of travel restrictions across the world and raised concern about what may be next in the pandemic.
In its statement on Wednesday, the NCDC said it had discovered two cases of the Omicron variant linked to passengers from South Africa.
It said, “In line with the routine travel tests required of all international travellers and genomic sequencing at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control through its National Reference Laboratory, Abuja, confirms Nigeria’s first case of the Omicron variant. Genomic sequencing of positive cases from routine day two testing for travellers to Nigeria identified two cases of Omicron variant among travellers from South Africa who arrived in Nigeria last week.
“Retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed cases among travellers to Nigeria also identified the Omicron variant among samples collected in October 2021.”
The NCDC added that it had begun contact tracing even though the two passengers were asymptomatic (of a condition or a person producing or showing no symptoms).
